Born in Kansas City, Missouri, I hated the constant moves of my early childhood, which took me to California, Texas, and Georgia. I grew up mostly in Georgia, went to Texas, and then Nuevo Laredo, Mexico briefly before moving to Laredo, Texas. My strange adolescence--which at one point included 25 horses and ponies, an African lion and a decaying, haunted antebellum--gave me a lifetime of stories; I'm married and have four children, fodder for additional tales. Add to that grandkids, a great dane, the pit bull I swore never, ever to have, and a sometimes cat, and stories are there, whether or not the time to write presents itself day to day.

When people wonder why I write, I always secretly wonder why they don't. . .I can't remember not writing.  What I say, though, is that I have always done it and can't help myself.  That writers should read, that they should care. . .and that they must write.  What else is there?

And, in seeking new avenues to write, I will always be profoundly grateful to Al Gore for inventing the internet, as it provides such myriad opportunities to express my thoughts.